Peacefully, Thoo Mwe Khee

Peacefully, Thoo Mwe Khee, Thai-Burmese border
Thoo Mwe Khee is a lively school and boarding house for Karen children run by a gentle man named Peacefully. The school opened in 2001, with pupils making a daily journey across the border. In 2003, the staff opened the boarding house to enable children from the worst-hit areas to continue their education. Currently the school teaches around 320 children, a number which is increasing as the situation in Burma deteriorates and parents send their children away for safety.
Peacefully lives in a wooden house with his wife and small children, while the refugees in his care live in cool palm-roofed dormitories nearby. From Peacefully's balcony you can see the Burmese hills not far away. They are dense with a lush green of forest, misty at dawn. "Sometimes, in the morning, we look at our land. It's all our land you know," he says. Now thirty years old, Peacefully left his village on the other side of the Moei River when he was twelve.